90-year-old swimmer set to cross lake again
Kelowna’s 90-year-young Conny Stamhuis is ready to attempt her sixth 2.1-kilometre swim across Okanagan Lake on July 16. She will be participating in the 74th Interior Savings Across The Lake Swim Kelowna, the largest and longestrunning open water swim event in Canada.
Stamhuis will be the oldest participant in the history of the event.
Swimming across the lake is not Stamhuis’ biggest challenge this year, however. In celebrating her 90th birthday, she set herself the goal of raising $10,000 for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.
MSF is an international, independent medical humanitarian organization that provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disaster or exclusion from health care.
Stamhuis, who emigrated to Canada from the Netherlands at age 20, studied nursing in her 40s.
“It was always a dream of mine to join MSF, but my husband did not believe in equality of sexes at the time, so I never did,” she said.
“With the war in Ukraine and all the other tragic assaults against humanity, I feel stronger than ever that I need to make a contribution. Although I can’t join them at 90, I can still raise funds to support their efforts. I need and would appreciate all the help I can get to reach my goal,” she said.
You can support her goal online at canadahelps.org.
Stamhuis, an inspiration to many around her, started swimming again at age 65.
“I suppose you could call me a late bloomer. I just love how swimming has enriched my life and has helped me to stay active in the community,” she said.
Swimming is a family affair for the Stamhuis clan with Conny’s son, Michael, having successfully completed the swim 14 times and her daughter, Jonie, and son-inlaw, Ken, being her escorts across the lake.
Stamhuis recently participated in the 2022 BC Masters Swimming Championships in White Rock. She set a provincial record in the 90-94 age group for the 200-metre backstroke and also placed first in the 50-metre breaststroke and 50-metre backstroke.
She was inducted into the Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.